NASHVILLE – State Rep. Jimmy Naifeh of Covington – the son of Lebanese emigrants who served as House speaker longer than anyone in Tennessee history – announced on the House floor today that he won’t run for re-election this year after 38 years in the General Assembly. Naifeh, 72, a Democrat, was first elected to the House in 1974 and re-elected 18 times. The House elected him its speaker, the chamber’s presiding officer, for nine two-year terms from 1991 until 2009 when Republicans won a House majority. He’s remained an outspoken House member since then. Addressing his colleagues on the...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Democratic House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh is calling on Tennessee Republican leaders to renounce former state GOP leader Chip Saltsman in the wake of a music parody of President-elect Barack Obama. . . . He sent committee members a CD this Christmas featuring a 2007 song called "Barack the Magic Negro." The parody is sung to the music of "Puff, the Magic Dragon."

. . .See no evil -- House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh has found the perfect solution to the legislature’s sleazy ethics. He’s covering his eyes.On the day former Sen. John Ford entered federal prison for taking bribes in the “Tennessee Waltz” scandal, House Democrats killed a bill to revoke state health insurance benefits for lawmakers convicted of felonies involving their office.Sen. Charles Curtiss, the bill’s sponsor, said, “In my mind, we ought to be held to a higher standard.” But apparently not in Naifeh’s mind.Later, the mighty speaker dismissed the possibility that killing the bill hurts Democrats’ public image. He didn’t...

NASHVILLE - House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh has once again used his powerful post to kill gun legislation in the General Assembly. Naifeh, with the help of a brand new member of the Legislature, on Wednesday helped override an earlier subcommittee vote in favor of a bill that would close handgun permit records from public inspection. As speaker, the Covington Democrat is entitled to vote on any House panel. "I'd really prefer to not go the committees and vote. But when it's a matter of importance, I do," Naifeh said. The House Criminal Practice Subcommittee had voted earlier Wednesday to pass...

NASHVILLE - An NAACP official on Friday urged Tennessee Republicans to censure Knoxville's state Rep. Stacey Campfield and demand his resignation as a lawmaker because he compared the Legislature's Black Caucus to the Ku Klux Klan. Campfield, a white Republican legislator who has found himself a subject of national attention after being told he cannot join the Black Caucus, said his remarks have been misinterpreted and that he sees no reason to resign. The latest round began with a letter sent to state Republican Chairman Bob Davis by Nashville NAACP President Arnett H. Bodenhamer, declaring that his organization is "incensed"...